Ice Cold in January
by zElliexmagic
Summary: Lucy falls in the river. Who is left to save her, but the fire dragon? Nalu.


**Sorry this came late. I was busy with school and stuff, but I was finally able to finish this so here I am typing it up. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail**

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Ice Cold in January

Cold…

It was _very_ cold…

It was under 10'F (-12'C) when Lucy left her apartment. She was sure it was getting colder by the minute. Lucy knows it's January, but this cold is preposterous!

Lucy's apartment was under 30'F (-1'C) when she woke up in the morning. She had called her landlady and received bad news: her heater was broken! Even more bad news: the repairman couldn't come until tomorrow in the evening. Apparently, she wasn't the only one whose heater is broken.

Lucy decided to just hang out at the guild hall, praying it was warm in there.

It was a little difficult getting from her apartment to Fairy Tail. It was very slick. She walked at the edge of the river like usual, especially when she saw not as much ice on it, on it, only bits and pieces, but she just stepped over it.

Lucy waved with a smile at the fisherman on the very cold river who warned her to be especially careful today. She had more than a 50/50 shot of falling in the river.

When she walked through the doors of the guild hall, she waited to hear a "Lucy! Let's go on a job! I found this perfect one for you!" from her partner, but none was heard. Lucy raised an eyebrow and walked toward the bar.

"Hey Lucy!" Mira smiled sweetly as Lucy sat in front of her.

"Hi Mira! Have you seen Natsu and Happy? I figured they'd see me come in and ask me to go on a job with them, but I don't see them."

Mira put her finger on her chin in thought, "Actually, I haven't seen them at all today-"

The doors burst open causing Lucy to jump in her seat. The duo Mira and she were talking about, made their usual dramatic entrance. As everyone greeted them, Happy ran off to order a fish, causing Mira to leave Lucy alone. Natsu glanced around the room before finding his favorite blonde and making his war over to her with his trademark smile that caused Lucy to go red.

"Yo, Luce!" The fire dragon shouted with glee.

"Hey, Natsu! I figured you'd be here before me, picking out a mission."  
"I planned to, but I overslept. Sorry!"

"It's fine. I wanted a day off anyway. Why were you so gung-ho on so many jobs in a row anyway?"

Lucy couldn't sworn she saw a light blush on this dragon slayer's face, but it was hard to see thanks to his tan skin.

"I…uh…I-I wanted to save up to buy something."

"Oh? Do you have enough money now?"

Natsu nodded, scratching the back of his head, "Yup. I'm going by the store later today."

"What is it? Knowing you, it's probably some kinda food," she giggled.

Lucy's words made Natsu's stomach growl. He figured this would be a good excuse not to answer her question. "Man, I'm starving! Oi, Mira! I'll take some of that spicy soup!"  
"Coming right up!"

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Natsu left the guild hall later that day and Lucy assumed it was to buy whatever he was saving up for. Happy left with Wendy and Carla on a mission. At first, Lucy complained, saying her, Natsu, and she were a team, but Happy whispered in her ear about getting Carla on a date with him. So, Lucy let him go.

Lucy sat around the guild hall, waiting for Natsu to come back, but the sun was touching the horizon and Lucy knew she had to leave. When she opened the doors, she immediately met the cold. She shivered and pulled her coat around her tighter. After three steps, she slipped and landed on her butt with a girlish squeal.

"Lucy! Are you okay?"

Lucy turned around at the bar tender who was wipping the tables. "Yeah, I'm fine, Kinana! I just slipped. I forgot it was icy, "Lucy spoke while slowly and carefully getting back onto her feet.

"Be careful on you way home!"

"I will! You too, Kinana!"

Lucy walked at the edge of the river, squinting in the dark and stepping over pieces of ice, making sure she didn't fall.

"I wonder was Natsu wanted to buy so badly…" she mumbled to herself.

Now that Lucy thinks about it, food wouldn't be what he would want to buy. Most of the time, he's eating at the guild hall. When he's not, he's cleaning out her cabinets.

"It's probably for some girl he likes…" She mumbled again.

Lucy then laughed, realizing Natsu was too dense to even know that "like" means in that aspect. Of course, no one would like him like that either. He's too much of an idiot!

Lucy admitted to herself that Natsu was smoking hot (in both ways, literally) with the deepest onyx eyes and the widest goofy-but-cute smile. Also, you'd think pink hair would look terrible on anybody, but it only made him look better. His tan skin and 6-pack abs added to that.

Lucy would understand if someone crushed on him because of his looks, but once they got to know him…well, not so much.

Natsu was an idiot. He was dense, he was reckless, destructive, childish, and sometimes hot-tempered. Lucy was almost positive he didn't have any brain cells. If he did, it was very few. He never thinks about anything at all, he always jumps right into things, he always picks fights with anybody, he doesn't have any manners at all, and he's really loud.

But he's also sweet and caring. He's always there for any of his friends when they need him. Despite not having a brain, Natsu always knew what to say. He loves each and every one in the guild (even if he didn't show it) like they were his brothers and sisters. His eyes, shining, lit up the room whenever he walked in and his smile was brighter than the sun itself. Lucy would gladly put up with his childish antics everyday to see him smile even if it only lasted for a moment…His eyes make her day and his smile makes her smile.

Suddenly, Lucy froze, mentally and physically.

She froze mentally because after quickly summing it up in her head, there was no denying it, not even to herself: she was in love with him. At first, she scolded herself for falling head over heels for someone like…well, Natsu! But after a moment, she knew it wasn't so bad. In fact, there was no one else she could think of who she'd rather fall in love with.

She froze physically because she was so carried away in her thoughts that she didn't see the ice in front of her. She slipped and before she knew it, was at the bottom of the ice cold river.

The splash made her realize what had happened. Before she could swim up to the icy surface to breathe and get out, the deadly cold literally demanded her body to stop moving and it obeyed. She couldn't breathe; she couldn't move or even shiver and here she is at the bottom of the river, ice cold in the middle of January, all because she was lost in her thoughts.

Suddenly, an arm wrapped around her. At first, she thought it was her mother because it was warm. She thought she was dead and her mother was hugging her. She would've believed that if it wasn't for the cold. Heaven wasn't cold.

She felt herself being pulled toward the surface and gasped for breath when she met air, but just because she had oxygen now didn't mean she was safe yet.

Lucy still couldn't move. Her rescuer continued to pull her until she was out of the river, but he didn't stop there. Lucy was drenched in cold water and still couldn't move.

She caught a glimpse of pink hair and knew exactly who it was…

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Natsu silently cursed when he saw that Lucy had passed out. At least she was awake when he pulled her out. She got a few gulps of air before going unconscious. Lucy getting some air was good, but she wasn't shivering which would lead to a severe sickness if he didn't do something. Since he was a fire wizard, the river didn't affect him, but when he felt Lucy's ice cold skin, he knew she was colder than Mt. Haboke.

Scooping her up in his arms, Natsu rushed off to Lucy's apartment and burst the doors open when he arrived (he couldn't go though the small window and climb the wall to the second story while carrying Lucy). He ran to her room and quickly, but carefully laid her on her bed.

Natsu sweared again, seeing the temperature in the room extremely low. He turned it up, but it beeped back, saying it had an error. He groaned and wracked his brain for more ideas. Lucy needed to be warmed up ASAP, but nothing besides the thermostat came to mind.

Oh, wait…there was that…

Blushing, the pink-haired mage turned to the blonde. Should he?…

Ah! What the heck?! It's not like he doesn't want to anyway! He doesn't mind and hopefully, she won't either.

Natsu crawled over the girl and snuggled under the covers. He grabbed Lucy and pulled her into an embrace.

A few minutes later, she was still ice cold.

Natsu pulled back slightly and raised an eyebrow. " _Why isn't my body heat warming her up?_ " He felt her forehead, cheeks, and neck. " _She's still so cold…_ "

Oh, wait, her clothes…

Natsu mentally slapped himself. Her clothes were sopping wet. They were drenched with cold water. If she was going to warm up, she'd need a new pair of clothes.

Natsu hopped up and pulled Lucy out of the bed, leaning her against the bedpost in a sitting position on the ground. He bit his lip, realizing what he was about to do.

" _Well, it's for the better._ "

Promising himself he'd only look as long as he had to, he slipped her wet shirt off and threw it in the hamper. As he did so, he caught a glimpse of a floor heater in her closet and happily grabbed it and turned it on in front of Lucy.

Natsu glanced at the unconscious celestial wizard, blushed, and continued to remove her wet clothes. As he reached for her pajamas drawer (yes, he just "happened" to know where it was), he unintentionally started staring at the blonde in her underwear.

She was beautiful…and not even that word had enough power to describe what the fire dragon was seeing. She was absolutely _gorgeous_. The floor heater added to that, making her hair flap against her face in a stunning manner. In her clothes of underwear, wet hair or not, how come he never noticed how breathtaking she was before?

Natsu caught himself and brought a hand across his face to snap out of it. He took Lucy's pajamas and slipped them on her. He then took the blanket off the bed and wrapped it around not only her, but himself as well, giving her as much heat as possible as he snuggled against her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

A few minutes later, Natsu smiled widely when he saw the color flood back into her cheeks. As he sat, with his back against the bedpost, hugging Lucy against him so her head lay on his shoulder, and the floor heater blowing heat of them, Natsu sighed in relief as sleep took him.

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Lucy slowly opened her eyes to find herself staring at a broad, tan shoulder causing her to jump in her position. When she looked up at the owner, she relaxed. Lucy observed her surroundings as when had happened came back to her and sighed as the floor heater blew heat into her face. She needed to get up. She needed to see what time it was (because it was pitch black outside), but she didn't wanna move. She needed to change into pajamas and crawl into bed, but she was so comfy against Natsu...

Wait, pajamas?...

Lucy pulled the blanket away from her slightly and looked down.

….Natsu!

Shooting a glare at him, Lucy raised her hand to slap him and call him a perv, but the pinkette was asleep. She blushed when she saw how cute he was as he was sleeping and smiled when she realized that she was warm thanks to him. Despite the floor heater and the blanket, her warmth was mainly coming from him. Lucy snuggled back against Natsu, wrapping her arms around him and putting her cold nose on his collarbone.

"Luce?"

Lucy jumped and pulled away quickly, "I thought you were asleep!"

Natsu rubbed his eyes, "Well, I was…"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," she muttered.

"It's okay," he yawned and ran his fingers through his hair. "Are you okay? You fell into the river."

"I'm fine thanks to you," Lucy smiled. "I'd probably be dead if it you weren't stalking me."

"I wasn't stalking you. I was following you."

"That's the same thing, Natsu."

"Okay! I was checking to make sure you were okay."

The blonde blinked. She was on her way home and he knew that. Why would he check on her if he knew where she was going?

"Okay! Okay! I was on my way to your apartment when I heard you talking to yourself. Normally, I wouldn't care, but you said my name and I got interested."

"Oh." Lucy blushed as she recalled her rant to herself about Natsu. Thanks to that rant, she realized she loved him and fell into the river.

Natsu smirked, "You were thinking about how awesome I am, weren't you?"

"I was not!" She blushed hotter.

"You're a terrible liar."

"I-I w-was just wondering a-about that thing y-you wanted to buy!"

Natsu blushed, "Oh, that…"

He tensed, wondering if he should give it to her now. When Lucy fell in the river, he had forgotten about that.

Lucy pecking him on the cheek brought him out of his thoughts.

"W-what was that for?" He looked down at the blushing blonde.

"For saving my life."

"I've saved your life many times and I've never gotten that from you before!"

"Yeah, well…I didn't that these kinds of feelings back then."

Natsu stared, realizing the meaning behind her words. " _I should definitely give it to her now._ "

He dug into his pocket and pulled out a small box. Lucy raised her eyebrows at it as he handed it to her, "here."

She blinked in surprise as she opened it. It was a simple silver chain necklace with a red heart on it. What surprised her was that the heart was a ruby. She blushed and opened her mouth to say something, but he beat her to it.

"I happened to see this in a store on the way back from a mission. You have heart earrings, but not a matching necklace so I thought I should-"

He was cut off by a pair of lips against his and he immediately melted into the kiss.

"I love it!" She exclaimed after pulling back (too soon for Natsu's liking though). "Thank you, Natsu!"

He smiled widely, "You're welcome! As long as I get those kisses from you more often!"

Lucy smiled and leaned in again, but instead of kissing his lips, she licked his cheek.

"What the-"

"That's what you get for changing my clothes as I was asleep!"

"Your other clothes were wet! Be thankful I decided not to take your underwear off as well!"

"Pervert!"

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 **And here you go! I hope you liked it! Also, I had a dream a few nights ago about an adventure NaLu story. I really wanna write it and I know I said I was only doing short stories on my FanFiction and doing series on my YouTube, but I'm not ready for using YouTube so I'm thinking about putting it on here. What do you guys think? I think I'm going to call it "Ravens and Fairies, Dragons and Princesses". Do you guys want me to type it up?**

 **-zEllie**


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